University of Memphis, TN

“Powers and beauties unknown before”: Late-nineteenth century innovation in American pipe organ construction and its implications for performers

In the mid-1860s, word of a new musical marvel spread across the United States. Churches and concert halls filled with audiences clamouring to hear an instrument hitherto restricted to dreary hymn and psalm accompaniments: the pipe organ. In the wake of the First Industrial Revolution, workshops in urban centers assumed a prolific production of organs, considerably increasing their scale, range of expression, and technical capability. By the 1870s, virtually every northeastern town and city boasted at least one of their own, and organ builders began to ship their instruments as far as Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco. In the hands of capable performers returned from studies in Europe, the pipe organ supplied public entertainment of grandiose scale, ubiquitous accessibility, and a uniquely American identity. The new American organ was perfectly suited to its nascent performance culture. Quantity aside, industrial methods produced organs of higher quality and playability than ever before. New developments in metal alloys, acoustics, and key action quickly approached the standard of European organ building. The expansion of keyboard- and pedal-compasses made possible the performance of serious solo repertory (above all, the music of Bach). Moreover, a general diversification of timbres and number of divisions distilled the capacity of an entire orchestra in the hands and feet of one performer; indeed, organ recitals often represented rare chances hear favourite opera arias or symphony movements in transcription. Finally, the organ’s popularity established its unique voice in society. It introduced music of the European canon to American audiences. It asserted political rhetoric, as in Paine’s concert variations on the Union anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. It also imparted wisdom and inspiration to organ students, among them Charles Ives, Florence Price, and G.W. Chadwick, whose formative experiences at the console would play out in American music culture of the next century.